Mathan Erissery/ Pumpkin Erisserry

This is a long overdue post, I was hoping to post this for Onam but I couldn’t post it.  There was so much going on past few weeks, after school activities with my boy, three birthday cakes which I made neck to neck and a wretched flu which kept me drowsy for almost a week and finally a full time job alongside the studies!  I don’t want to waste my time nagging here, so l will get straight to recipe, but before that let me thank some of my friends who support and encourage me to keep blogging and who take some time to give positive feedbacks about the recipes which they tried from my blog. That is the only reason why I try to update my blog as much as I can.

Coming to the recipe, Mathan erisserry is usually made with pumpkin and black eyed beans but I find the combination with cherupayar/mung tastes much better than traditional black eyed beans version, so now I usually make my erisserry with cherupayar . I always make this erisserry  for Kerala Sadya as we all love it.

Ingredients

Pumpkin – 250 gm

Cherupayar/ Mung – ¼ cup

Grated coconut – 1/2 cup + 2 tbs

Shallots/ Kunjulli – 4 number

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Salt

Curry leaves

Mustard seeds

Whole red chilly

Coconut oil

Method

• Soak Mung/ cherupayar overnight or at least for few hours and pressure cook it for 1-2 whistles adding little water.
• Make a coarse paste of ½ cup grated coconut, shallots and cumin seeds.
• Cube the pumpkin into medium sized cubes and cook it in a saucepan adding little water adding red chilli powder and turmeric powder.
• Add the cooked mung and coconut paste to the cooked pumpkin and cook for a 2-3 minutes .
• In a small pan add some coconut oil and sputter mustard seeds, add in the 2 tbs of grated coconut, whole red chillies and curry leaves. Roast coconut until brown add the tempering into cooked pumpkin.

Palada payasam

Hope all my Malayalee friends and folks had a good Onam this year. Every year I plan to post my full sadhya recipe menu and recipes in my blog beforehand but I think I am jinxed for some reason as  I never get to post recipes on time before the festivals. Like every year I made a good spread of Kerala recipes for our Onam sadya but sadly I couldn’t get my hands around the camera to click any pictures except this Paysam. So here I am a wishing everyone belated festive wishes with a special Pal Ada payasam I made. It’s better to be late than never isn’t it J

Ingredients ( serves 3-4)

Ada –100 gm

Milk – 4 cup

Evaporated milk – 1 cup (optional but recommended, substitute with milk if not using)

Sugar – ¾ - 1 cup ( according to your sweetness)

Boiling water – 1 ½ cup

Cardamom powder – ¾ tsp

Ghee – 1 tbs

Cashew nuts – 1 tbs

Golden raisins – 1 tbs

Method

1. Boil water in saucepan and turn off the flame, add the ada to the boiling water and cover it and leave it for 30 minutes, strain the water. Keep the ada aside.
2. Boil milk in a thick bottomed pan and add the strained ada to it.
3. Cook the ada for 30-40 minutes stirring it every now and then.
4. Add the evaporated milk, sugar and cook until sugar is dissolved.
5. Add cardamom powder and remove from fire.
6. In a small pan add ghee and roast cashew nuts until brown and raisins until they are plump. Add this to the payasam.

Chocolate Tiramisu Cake

It was my sister’s birthday on the  weekend and since she was with me this time I decided to make it special for her. I asked her to choose the cake and she wanted a chocolate cake which is soft like a pastry/dessert cake with some fresh cream or something similar. I brain stormed for a while and then came up with this Tiramisu cake which she happily approved. I have made Tiramisu as a  dessert several times with sponge fingers and that’s one of my favourite desserts and I knew if it’s a Tiramisu cake it will be even better and I was right. It was utterly delicious and she absolutely loved it and we all finished the cake even  before I could take a picture of the cut slice to show you all the beautiful thin layers which I was really proud of.To be honest  it was the first time my hands was so sturdy to cut such thin layers to make the 4 layered cake.

 Recipe source  for sponge- BBC good food

Recipe for fillling - My Tiramisu dessert and here

Ingredients  - serves ( 8-10)

For the chocolate sponge ( I use 200 ml cup)

Plain flour- 100 gm( 1 tbs less than I cup)

Sugar – 140gm ( ¾ cup)

Butter – 50 gm /1/4 cup (melted)

Cocoa powder – 25 gm

Eggs – 4 large

Baking powder – ½ tsp

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Salt – pinch

For the filling( cooked egg version)

Egg yolks – 3

Caster Sugar – 2 tbsp + 1 tbs

Icing sugar / powdered sugar – 8 tbs or as per your sweetness

Tia maria or any coffee liqueur – 4 tbsp( 2+2)

Coffee-  ½ cup( dissolve ½ tsp instant coffee in ½ cup of boiling water)

Whipping cream – 500 ml

Mascarpone cheese- 250gm

Grated chocolate – 1/3 cup

Vanilla extract – 1tsp

Method

Making the cake

• Measure flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt in a mixing bowl and keep it aside.
• Beat eggs with sugar and vanilla extract until its thick and trebled in volume for about 5-8 minutes.
• Sieve the dry ingredients from mixing bowl to the egg mixture and fold in gently.
• Add in the cooled melted butter and gently fold in.
• Divide and pour the batter into two 8 inch cake tins and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree Celsius for about 10-12 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
• Cut  each layer horizontally into two and you will get 4 layers of cake.

Making the coffee

• Dissolve ½ tsp of instant coffee powder in ½ cup boiling water, add 2 tbs of coffee liqueur, 1 tbs of sugar, vanilla extract and keep it aside.

Preparing the filling

• In a heat proof bowl place three egg yolks, add 2 tbs of sugar and 2 tbs of coffee liqueur and place it over a barely simmering pan of water and beat with and electric beater for about 5-8 minutes or until its thick and volume has trebled.
• Remove from heat and let it come to room temperature and then add mascarpone cheese and beat.
• Whip double cream with icing sugar until soft peaks are formed.
• Fold the whipped cream to the cheese egg mixture.

Assembling the cake

• Place the first layer of cake on a cake board and brush it with prepared coffee, let the cake soak the coffee.
• Spread the filling on top of it and sprinkle some grated chocolate on top.
• Repeat the same for the other 3 layers.
• Decorate the cake as you like. I placed some sponge fingers on the side and did a small piping on the border and centre.
• Chill the cake until its ready to be served.